Jamila K. Wilson began her professional career as an Americorps volunteer after graduating from the University of Missouri–Columbia with a BA in political science.
In 2006, she moved to Louisiana to support the recovery and rebuilding efforts of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita through City Year Louisiana, and later as a high school English teacher at John McDonogh High School in the New Orleans Recovery School District. During her time there, she worked with community organizers to serve as a founding adult supporter of the Fyre Youth Squad, an organization for New Orleans youth who advocated for better quality schools in New Orleans after the disasters.
In 2012, Wilson accepted a professional development fellowship with the Proteus Fun. This philanthropic intermediary partners with foundations, individual donors, activists, and other allies to advance justice, equity, and an inclusive, representative democracy.
In 2017, she began working for the City of Peoria, Illinois, in the Equal Opportunity Office as the program director of PeoriaCorps, an Americorps workforce development program. Wilson describes her work in workforce development as “restoring the confidence of our community’s untapped human capital.”
In 2022, Wilson joined United Way of the Columbia Willamette as the Disaster Resilience Program manager stewarding the Disaster Resilience Learning Network, a network of leaders of color advancing equity and cultural practices as tools of resilience in disaster and emergency management.